And he went on to race again,very very lucky.

 

http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2006/10/great_balls_of_.html

 

Tony

Wow - I saw the first collision and thought you'd gone soft Tony :p After that, all hell breaks loose. Glad the drivers were ok :cool:

 

Steve :)

i feel sorry for the ferrari driver they didnt seem intrested in how he was for quite a while!!!

it obviously was not his time but what a crash.

Jesus, lucky doesn't really begin to cover that, can't believe he got up and walked away (well, staggered - very understandably) Just glad both drivers are OK

:shock: amazed that guy got out alive

That is just amazing, I can't believe the guy walked off

Guys the driver concerned was rushed to hospital when they took his helmet off. the reason he was shaking his head whas that his face was badly burned and he lost the sight of 1 eye, he had also issues with respiration as he had breathed in teh flames.

 

sory to rain on everyones parade.

 

Ill find the info on it as I was watching the race a while ago on men and motors or what ever. it was a JGT race at suzuka if my memory serves me correctly

This crash was at Fuji Raceway, Japan. The driver, Tetsuya Ota, was SEVERELY burned (3rd degree over most of his body) in the incident, and spent years suing the raceway authorities because there was not a fire truck nearby. Here is something I found after a quick google on his name..........

 

 

A racing car driver whose career ended with a sickening crash five years ago Wednesday was awarded 90 million yen compensation after the Tokyo District Court ruled race organizers were to blame for his crippling accident.

 

Tetsuya Ota fell well short of getting the 300 million he had been asking from the five organizers and the marshal of the 1998 race where he suffered severe burns that ruined his driving career, but received the vindication he had been looking for.

 

"The crash was caused when the flag car suddenly slowed down," Presiding Judge Tsuyoshi Ono said. "Firefighting and rescue preparations were also not up to scratch."

 

Ota was delighted with the court win. "I would like to thank everybody who has supported me along the way," the 43-year-old once referred to as Japan's best Ferrari handler said in the wake of the ruling.

 

Those ordered to pay Ota include Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture, where the horrifying crash occurred, and TV Tokyo, which broadcast the race.

 

None of the defendants have stated whether they will appeal against the ruling, including TV Tokyo, which spent the entirety of the court battle arguing that it could not be regarded as one of the race organizers.

 

Court records said Ota's terrifying crash occurred during a warm-up lap before the official start of the race in May 1998. Ota's car burst into flames after slamming into another vehicle that had already stopped because of a different accident.

 

Ota was stuck in the fireball for almost 90 seconds before rescuers finally dragged him out. He sustained burns across his body and is still unable to move his right arm, right shoulder and fingers properly.

 

Judges ruled the flag car should have been traveling at about 60 kilometers per hour instead of the 150 kilometers it was doing, and caused the accident by slowing too quickly. Ota was forced to unexpectedly drop his pace and, as a result, he lost control and smash into the stationary vehicle.

 

They also decided that Ota was left in his flaming vehicle for too long and organizers had neglected their responsibility to get him out of the burning car within 30 seconds of the blaze erupting.

 

A pre-race agreement between Ota and the organizers not to pursue legal action in the event of an accident was also dismissed as unacceptable.

 

"A letter that tries to eliminate one party from taking any responsibility for major accidents caused by gross negligence is incorrect, unfair and not void in this court," presiding judge Ono said.

 

TV Tokyo's attempt to avoid being regarded as one of the race organizers was dismissed by the court, which ruled it was involved in sufficient decisions made about the race to be viewed as one of the organizations directly concerned with running it.

 

Ota made his debut in 1982, racing in the Formula 3000 series before switching to GT car races in which he competed in four straight Le Mans 24-hour races. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 29, 2003)

That is one bad smash! Bet he's glad he wore his fire retardant body suit.

Why the hell were they doing a worm up lap in the fog, thats just asking for trouble.

thats just unbelieveable!! how can you survive sitting in a fire for that long!?

:shock: thats shocking the amount of time it took for them to get him out :nono:

This crash was at Fuji Raceway, Japan. The driver, Tetsuya Ota, was SEVERELY burned (3rd degree over most of his body) in the incident, and spent years suing the raceway authorities because there was not a fire truck nearby. Here is something I found after a quick google on his name..........

 

[/b]

 

This is one of them time where you would like to be wrong.

This is one of them time where you would like to be wrong.

 

Yes dude, I would. He was sitting in that burning car so fooking long I don't know how anyone could have survived it TBH......... :cry:

 

It's an absolute disgrace that they let him burn like that. I just hope that they have learned from it and never make the same mistakes again. :nono:

id seen that clip ages ago but it finished with the camera showing the blazing Ferrari, playing that sad music. we could only assume he never got out alive - but this clip shows that he did so in the short term im glad to see that he's alive. however, as stated above, he sat in that inferno for 90 seconds plus before being helped. where were the fire trucks? where was the ambulance? in the end it looks like they got a white van man out of the car park to come along and bundle him away. i wonder if they charged him for the fare too. in my opinion, Ota was quite right to sue and its a shame he didnt get what he asked for.

ps. hats off to the guys who designed the fire resistant garments he was wearing :bow: if it wasnt for them, there wouldnt be anything left of his skeleton let alone his skin

That's just unbelievable! Like Dave I'd seen the clip before but it ends with the blazing Ferrari. I'm amazed he got out alive, but like others have to ask why it took so long to get to him? There should have been marshals and firefighters all over that car as soon as it stopped.